Are the Vibes Too Good?

For a team on an absolute heater with their ace on the mound, there was legit concern heading into Minnesota’s Thursday afternoon getaway game against Seattle. The Mariners were running out Logan Gilbert, and the only rested bullpen arms were the ones that got shellacked during Tuesday’s hideous 10-6 loss. It would be a heavy lift, even if Pablo López dominated.

The Twins were up 8-1 after four innings.

What gives?

With the Twins on fire, the toast of the NBA playoffs across the street, MNUFC at the top of the table, and the godless Chicago White Sox damned for all time, it’s as good a spring as any in recent Minnesota sports history.

The old heads in the crowd, NOT WITHOUT DECADES OF REASONS, are waiting for the other shoe to fall. Things can’t stay this good, Royce Lewis is still a ways from coming back, the Nuggets are the defending champions, the Loons’ best player finds new flights to miss every week, Maya Moore is retired. Just watch. You get your hopes up, you crash to the unforgiving (if rich) Minnesota topsoil. The vibes mislead. They're just too good, right?

Right?

To paraphrase Eli Cash, what these vibes presuppose is…maybe they aren’t?

The vibes are correct.

Baseball players are some of the weirdest, most superstitious dudes alive. That something as goofy as a rally sausage bubbles (literally, at this point in its decay) to the surface during a peerless stretch of play is just, like, tremendous. It's a reminder that elite athletes are also just the biggest dorks. Rocco Baldelli's entire persona is that of the proud, frustrated parent who must wrangle his 26 idiot sons, all of whom are about to get kicked out of the hotel pool for horseplay.

The vibes are correct, because a team like that is fun as hell to watch, even when the team makes it tough to do so.

The vibes are correct, because Anthony Edwards is Him, and His team plays defense like you made them mad, and Naz Reid.

The vibes are correct because I saw two separate Loons fans smile when talking about the team. Two!

The vibes will return to a lesser, sadder state. They have to. Midwestern suffering demands it. Vikings training camp looms. Wile E. Coyote will look down and see the canyon floor.

But right now, we’re all here, together, defying gravity. The sausage is a shelf-stable food item. Maybe we can live forever. Float on.

Image license here.